Rep. Stephen Owens: Now is the time for criminal justice reform

The Kansas Prison population is beyond capacity. At last check, there were 10,044 inmates in prison system that has a capacity of 9,916 — 128 inmates over max capacity. As a result, the Kansas Department of Corrections just shipped 120 maximum security inmates to Arizona to be housed at a taxpayer cost of nearly $10,000 per day.

Many urban county jails are facing ever-increasing capacity issues as well. The Sedgwick County Jail has a capacity of 1,158 inmates, but as of October 24 had 1,632 in custody. As a result, it continues to house defendants out of the county and had to request an additional $2.6 million to operate through the year’s end.

According to Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter, the primary drivers are substance abuse and mental-health issues. Over the last three years there has been a resurgence of methamphetamine use as access has become increasingly cheap. This has led to increasing property crimes such as burglaries, thefts, and larcenies, all in order to feed a devastating addiction. Meth may be the primary driver, but opioids and heroin are also an increasing problem in Kansas.

Mental-health-related issues continue to be one of the top reason’s jails are filling up. They have become the de facto mental health facility in many counties. The lack of treatment has led to substantial increases in suicides (Kansas ranks eighth in the nation for the highest juvenile suicide rate), costly emergency room visits, tied up emergency services units and law enforcement that often have no other option than to take people to their local jail once they have committed some level of crime.

Legislation passed in the 2019 session of the Kansas Legislature created the Criminal Justice Reform Commission, which I vice-chair. As a result, specific members of the legislature, along with law enforcement, judges, court services, law professors, mental health and substance abuse professionals and others, were tasked with a number of priorities to research and make recommendations on. Topics include sentencing guidelines, supervision and diversion programs, specialty courts and prisons, and data management.

In my opinion, no topic is more important than mental health and substance abuse. As a result, I was asked to chair the subcommittee on mental health and substance abuse. Our subcommittee has met on numerous occasions over the last 3 months and have began to gather information with the following goal in mind:

“To create an integrated system between mental health, substance abuse and criminal justice at the county, regional and state levels that can provide prompt, appropriate treatment and interventions to break the cycles of decompensation and incarceration to successfully reduce the number of individuals with mental illness, substance use disorders or dually diagnosed individuals entering into, residing in and reentering the criminal justice system.”

Addressing the mental health and substance abuse crisis facing our state is the single biggest impact we can make on the criminal justice system. The answers are not easy, nor are they cheap. Some suggested solutions include regional mental health care centers, additional crisis intervention teams, expansion of treatment options for those that want help but can’t afford it, and many other options.

An investment now will pay enormous dividends over the next decade as we do our part to keep this group of people out of the criminal justice system. Now truly is the time for criminal justice reform.